Here’s a clever way to sell some lingerie — and get someone else to do your marketing for you!

Honey Birdette, the small Australian chain of high-end erotic boutiques, is holding an amateur photo contest that encourages entrants to put some of those expensive HB goodies to use. In fact, the retailer even loaned lingerie samples and props to help lensmen (and women) bring their erotic fantasies to life for the Saucy Snaps competition.

The winning photographer will receive $1,000 cash and see his/her work appear in Honey Birdette print advertising. For all you small labels and independent retailers out there, think of it this way: for $1,000, HB gets a ridiculously high-quality photoshoot, and tons of free publicity to help it along.

The Saucy Snaps contest drew a flood of entries before the June 1 deadline, and believe me, “saucy” is about the tamest word to describe them. Many of the submissions are so good, and so steamy, they look like something Agent Provocateur might have rejected for being too risqué.

Honey Birdette selected 25 portfolios (of up to four photos each) for the next round of online voting. You can see the finalists (and vote) here.

Even though they’re a million miles away, we like keeping an eye on Honey Birdette, simply because they seem to have more fun with social media than anyone this side of Team Coco. HB calls itself a “sensuality boutique” that sells lingerie from such luxury labels as Sally Jones and Pleasure State, along with a variety of toys, tools and bedroom peripherals. It’s comparable to Coco de Mer or Ann Summers in terms of its product mix and libertarian attitude about naughty goods, and it has the best slogan in the industry: “Nice girls do.”

The Saucy Snaps contest follows on the heels, so to speak, of their enormously amusing Saucy Shorts contest from last year, in which amateur filmmakers were invited to submit short films featuring HB products. One of the finalists made our list of the best lingerie videos of 2010.

Of course, a contest like this, and the promise of a cash prize, doesn’t just appeal to amateurs. Several of the finalists in the Saucy Snaps contest are professional photographers or studios who obviously had a ton of fun staging and styling their shoots.

Below we’ve included several of our favorites from among the final 25. Have a look: I guarantee it’s the most fun you’ll have at work all day!